Faistauer, with Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka once one of the most important pioneers and now a classic of modern painting in Austria, in contrast to the traditionally hostile to the avant-garde always connected to the great Western tradition of painting.

The art of painting has gained its deepest purpose in serving as a means to discover the world, to make the psyche of humans and landscapes understood; it has become a tool to conquer the world. Paintings perform the task of explaining natures secrets to mankind. They can imbue the breath, diversity, depth and profundity of the uni-verse. They can ease chaos and open up ways into the spirit of creation.

While Anton Faistauers early townscapes and landscapes encapsulate the soft, impressionistic aura of the moment, in the 1920s the emphasis clearly shifted in favour of a strict formal structure. In a view such as this, everything is subordinated to a clear pictorial architecture and even the natural formations are in accord with the regular shapes of the buildings…